I Begin Guitar

Light Switch

2009-01-20T17:24:00.003-05:00

Two things just clicked in my head while I was practicing E, A, D major chords and changes.

1) I had been playing A as a barre chord with the 1st (index) finger and just pressing the flat of the finger across strings 1-4 (second frett) and then strumming 5 to 2. This was because I had seen it demonstrated and it was much easier than trying to fit all 3 fat fingers in that space on 2nd fret.

Well, it clicked that I was making life very hard on myself, since it was making it very hard to get the tip of my first finger on its string in the next chord.

So now I am practicing getting my fat fingers pressed in on 2nd fret. So much easier to change from there.

2) It seems like making the D major chord is much easier if I get fingers 1 and 2 down on second fret, and then I kind of swing/curl my 3rd (ring) finger onto the 3rd fret. I was trying to make it one single motion, but it seems easier if I anchor my first two fingers first.

Likewise E major seems easier if I anchor the 1st finger on the first fret before placing fingers 3 and 2 together on the second fret.

It almost seems like some of these chords are easier if you break them into TWO shapes, rather than trying to make them one shape.... Hmm, I'll have to keep thinking about that.

Waiiit a minute .... I feel Aaaaaallllright

2009-01-19T19:19:00.000-05:00

So, of course I didn't just stick with trying to learn E minor and A minor. I tried to learn all sorts of chords. Learning chords is fun. If you can finger them correctly, you make the guitar sound cool, and that is what we are about right now.

Plus the more I finger, the better my calluses get. Again, this is a pretty big challenge in the first few weeks. Don't get frustrated. Eventually you "feel alright."

I learned the fingerings off my Rock House Method DVD, but there are tons of fingering resources out there. Here is a cool little site that makes seeing guitar chord fingering easy.

http://www.chordbook.com/guitarchords.php

I am sticking with A, C, D, E, and G major (the "maj" button) and A, D, and E minor (the "m" button). Mostly because they seem like I can actually finger them. Now that I know a little more, I think I would have concentrated on "Moveable Power Chords" first, but more on that another time.

So, now we get to the wait a minute part.

Changing chords is a beast for me as a beginner. I mean painfully slow. All the lessons say, "Play slow enough that you can change chords with the beat, in rhythm" Well, if it takes 5 - 10 seconds to change chords, there is no beat slow enough to stay "in rhythm." And in my experience, simply "practicing" didn't help me get very much faster changing chords. I was practicing plenty, but I knew I must be practicing wrong.

So, I will say again, skip "ahead" to power chords and moveable power chords. But if you must learn how to practice "regular" chords, read ahead. I think these "regular" chords are referred to as "open" chords, because you play some of the strings "open" (i.e. without fingering them) but I could be wrong about that.

OK, I went off and checked. I wasn't wrong. Yeah! :-)

So, here are two simple practice tips for changing chords (and really these apply to any fingering change). I picked them off a thread on a forum somewhere that I can't seem to find again...

1) Practice "pulling off" the chord and then "hammering on." NO, this is not some new birth control method. Get your mind out of that gutter. Simply finger a chord. Now pull your fingers off the strings about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Try not to move the fingers relative to each other. Now put them right back on the chord. Strum, pick each individual string, make corrections.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Essentially you are practicing changing from the chord, back to the chord. But it is still practicing a chord change. Incidentally, when you are trying "not to move the fingers relative to each other" you are practicing a chord "shape." At least I think you are. I think a chord shape is just a way of holding your fingers. Depending on where you put this shape on the neck, you get a different chord. Again, I could be wrong about that, but ... yeah, I checked again. Whew. I did realize when I was checking that it is important to point that not all shapes are "moveable."

Which brings us back to moveable power chords. They are probably the easiest moveable shapes to learn. I know. I just love to repeat myself. And I am such a tease.

Incidentally, that is another reason why E minor and A minor make great starting chords. They are almost the same shape.

2) OK. The other practice tip for changing chords. Practice moving one finger at a time.

So practicing E major to C major, you might first practice moving your pointer finger (or first finger) down one string from the 3 to the 2 string (on the first fret). Do this over and over, back and forth.

Then practice moving only the middle (2nd) finger down one string (from 5 to 4) on the 2nd fret. You will have to lift the ring (3rd) finger off the frets to make this work.

Each time you do this, strum the resulting "chord" which may sound nasty. It may sound really cool, too. Awesome! Pluck each string and make sure it rings out. Adjust your fingering until it does.

Practice each finger individually and then start moving two fingers at a time. Say move fingers 1 and 2 together. Hey! For this chord change those two fingers retain the same "shape." That makes it easier to move them together.

This is where I learned a really cool sounding chord that I don't what it is. C major, without the 5th string fretted (which is an A, incidentally. More on that another time.) So it is just 2nd string, 1st fret and 4th string, second fret. Strum strings 5 to 1. Switch between that and E major and it sounds cool.

Sounding cool is good at this point. Heck, sounding cool is good at any point, at least as far as I am concerned.

Eventually, you practice moving all 3 fingers together. Which is - "duh" - the actual chord change.

My last thought today is that playing guitar for me is less about learning each individual chord, scale or song and more about learning how to have fun on the instrument. So I try to mess around all the time and make it sound good. And by that I mean sound good to me, the hell with what anyone else thinks...

Next time: Let's play a song already!

The Ecstasy ... and The Agony

2009-01-18T22:19:00.000-05:00

So, the first thing that needed to be done was tune my new guitar.

I guess, technically, the first thing I needed to do was learn HOW to tune a guitar. Because my starter kit came with a tuner, this was very easy. My tuner has a bass guitar and 6 string guitar settings. Once a made sure it was switched to correct position, I simply used a pick to pluck each string. The tuner told me whether the string was flat (♭) or sharp (♯). If the string was flat, I turned the peg to tighten it, if it was sharp, I turned the peg to loosen it. I plucked again until the tuner showed the string was correct.

Then I went back it did it all over a few times. Early on, you have to tune guitars frequently as they "break in." Eventually you won't have to be tuning all the time.

If you don't have a tuner, I would say you should get one. It's cheap and will save you many headaches. There are other ways of tuning a guitar, and I'll talk about one later, but a tuner is much easier and will let you concentrate on actually learning the guitar. At that moment, I didn't care to what notes the strings were supposed to be. I just wanted to make the guitar make a good sound.

The DVD that came with the guitar started with some basic info about the guitar. I think most of the instructional sites, etc. do this and it as all pretty basic info. Here is a link to a page describing the parts http://musiced.about.com/od/musicinstruments/ig/Parts-of-the-Guitar/

Pretty much there are just two important things to know: strings and frets.

The fattest string on top is the is the lowest sounding string and is referred to as the 6th string. The skinniest string on the bottom is the highest sounding string and is called the 1st string. Pretty upside down if you ask me, but that is how they do it.

The frets are the strips of metal on the neck. The one farthest from the sound hole is first fret, the next one is second fret and so on. You press the string down at the fret to change the sound the string makes. The closer to the sound hole, the higher the sound. Really, you press the string down somewhere before the fret in question. If you look closely you will see that the string is actually getting sort of bent over the metal strip when you press it down. As long as you get it to bend over the strip, it will sound right.

Here is a link talking about the frets http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa071200i.htm.

So, all that boring stuff out of the way, I wanted to play something! Most lesson plans start you out with chords and this DVD was no different. What's a chord you ask? It's just a bunch of notes played together that sound good together. Because each string on a guitar can play a different note, and they all can play at the same time, a guitar is ideal for playing chords.

The chord the DVD started me out on was E minor. E minor is pretty simple. You just press down the 4th and 5th strings at the second fret and strum all the strings. Why is it called E minor? Who cares right now, I just want to play.

By the way, strumming is just running your thumb or pick down across all the strings. I think when I was starting doing this I was "digging in" too much. The pick or your thumb just needs to brush the strings.

Here is a a video link of someone playing E minor http://www.ehow.com/video_4465513_play-eminor-chord-acoustic-guitar.html

So, I did it and it sounded ... like crud. Major disappointment. All muffled and garbled. So, I plucked each individual string, found the ones that sounded bad and moved my fingers around and pressed harder and changed my hand position and eventually ... tada! A sweet sound came out of the guitar! Oh joy, oh rapture. Happy day. Let me try that again.... sweet jesus my fingers hurt.

Seriously, my fingers felt like someone was trying to split them with a razor blade. In every beginning lesson, they say "Your fingers may be a little sore at first." No, my fingers felt like they were bleeding. Yes, now, weeks later I have calluses, but back then, it was pain city. The calluses didn't come in a few days, it took a few weeks.

And while I was waiting for the calluses, every time I played I would have to stop after a little while because it was literally impossible for me to get my finger to press the string to the fret-board. The strings had carved the grand canyon in my fingertips and I could press down as hard as I wanted, but I wasn't moving the strings.

So if that happens to you, don't get too frustrated. Early on I was expecting way to much. Those first few weeks were mostly about developing calluses. (Well, that and realizing my "beginner" guitar wasn't the right instrument to learn on ... but more on that later.)

So, the other chord brought into that first lesson was A minor. Here is a link to a diagram of how it is fingered http://guitar.about.com/library/blchord_aminor.htm

The fattest string (6th string) is on the left in that link, and the X means it isn't played (you start strumming at the 5th string). You put your index finger on the 2nd string, 1st fret. Your middle finger goes on the 4th string, 2nd fret and leaves room for your ring finger to go on the 3rd string, second fret. Aside from the pain, my biggest problems were keeping my hand from touching the 1st string and keeping all my fingers on their own string and not touching other one. You are supposed to put your fingertip straight down on the string in question, but that was a challenge at first.

I think E minor and A minor are great chords to start out on. They are some of the easiest to finger, but they still get 3 fingers involved and starting to toughen up, which is the most important thing at first.

I played E and A minor over and over and over hundreds of times that first week. Eventually I could make them sound really good individually, but changing between them was a real challenge. It was horrendously slow. Visons of trying to play a song where I stopped and said "wait a minute, wait a minute" at every chord change made me sweat, and not in a good way. The DVD, and the instruction articles just say "practice over and over till it gets easy." Ha!

So the first few weeks really were ecstasy and agony.

Next time, I'll talk about some advice I stumbled across for how to practice changing chords so that it is actually quick.

Incidentally, the DVD that came with set was by an outfit named Rock House Method. Generally speaking, I think the DVD breazes through things too quickly, but has some good ideas for practice sessions that will get you started practicing interesting things. But I don't think you could use it as the only means to learning guitar.

Next time: I said .... Waaaaaaiiiiiit A Minute! I feel .... allllllllright!

Let's Start at the Very Beginning

2009-01-18T11:53:00.000-05:00

How to start... How to start...

Well, that really is the problem. I just started learning how to play guitar, and I have been frustrated by all the "beginning" info out there. It's either too simple, too advanced or - most frustrating - not detailed enough. It all seems to assume that I already know how to play guitar. And I don't know how, which is why I'm starting this blog. To document my attempts to learn guitar, and maybe help a few people in the process. Or at least make you smile at my foolish attempts ;-)

Here is a little background. I have a buddy at work who a serious devotee of http://woot.com. He noticed what seemed to be a sweet deal on an acoustic guitar package - http://sellout.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=2795443. $50 for a starter acoustic guitar package? How could I resist? Well, as it turns out, it may have been the best thing ever, even though I might never play that guitar.

I eagerly awaited its arrival, tracking its progress online. When it arrived I pulled it out of the box. Ooooh a soft case, a playing strap, picks, an instructional DVD and .... a tuner! The guitar gleamed softly as I set it on my knee. I was as giddy as kid at Christmas. I popped in the DVD and immediately started learning how to tune it up. I was on my way!

Next Up: The Ecstasy ... and the Agony!